The Rethink Local Podcast

The Rethink Local Podcast

Hosted by Alex Torpey, the Rethink Local Podcast shares about the people, policies, and practices that support effective local government, decision making, community trust, organizational development, and more. We focus on the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont and New England as a whole, but discuss topics and stories from across Rethink Local's own work and volunteering portfolio as well as the work of our contractors, colleagues, partners, and friends. PREVIOUSLY known as the Upper Valley Vibes podcast, we have 'rebranded' to expand our focus beyond the Upper Valley but stay committed to exploring dynamics critical to our local democracies and communities.

Episodes

July 9, 2026 46 mins

Welcome to a special episode of the RETHINK LOCAL podcast. In it, I talk with Nate Bernitz who is a community and economic development field specialist at the University of New Hampshire extension about ways to improve retention and recruitment on municipal boards and committees and help leverage the power of volunteers to improve local decision-making. 

This topic has come up a lot in meetings and workshops with town official...

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Today I want to talk about public records requests — not from an abstract legal perspective, but from the ground level of actually working in towns across Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

I believe public records access is essential. But things are getting more challenging and we are having the wrong conversation in some key areas, falling into an overly binary debate that doesn't get us closer to better...

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In this quicker update type episode, I share a bit about the contract that Rethink Local just started over the last couple weeks in Randolph Vermont, where my company was brought in to provide planning and zoning services, as well explore some opportunities for shared services in the future. I'll be serving as Randolph's Zoning Administrator under the title of Director of Planning, Zoning, and Regional Partnerships.

In this ep...

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In this episode of Upper Valley Vibes, we're going to talk about community nursing - the program mostly centered in small rural communities in the northeast US, get to know some of the folks who helped drive the adoption of these programs in the Upper Valley and hear from several nurses in different towns about what it's like and why this healthcare service is so valuable.

...

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December 12, 2024 27 mins

Last month, millions of people turned out to vote in the 2024 elections.  I voted stickers made their way across social media, ads and signs littered our internet and streets for weeks and months leading up to it, and billions was spent on the whole thing.

But, the truth is that voting for president is only a drop in the bucket compared to the number of opportunities that our system of government makes available for us all to ...

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In this episode of Upper Valley Vibes we took another visit to Norwich over the summer where I sit down with Greg Prince.

Greg has been an educator for the bulk of life - teaching English oversees in the 60s, administering and overseeing program at various schools and colleges, which brought him to Dartmouth as the f...

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Hi everyone, Alex Torpey here, your host of Upper Valley Vibes.

In this episode, I invited some VIPs from outside the Upper Valley up to Junction Arts Media's (Formerly CATV) podcast recording studio in White River Junction. (Which by the way, JAM is a partner on this podcast and that podcast recording studio can be ...

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Hi Alex Torpey here, your host of Upper Valley Vibes.

In this episode, I take a walk on the rail trail in Lebanon with Josh Crane of Norwich, Vermont. Josh is the Senior Producer and Managing Editor of the really great podcast Brave Little State that many of you have probably heard of, published by Vermont Public. Before joining Brave Little State and moving to the Upper Valley in 2021, Josh spent years reporting and producing podc...

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Hi everyone my name is Alex Torpey, your host of the new Upper Valley Vibes podcast.

As we get this thing going I wanted to share a little bit about my goals for the podcast, and first, share a little of my background so you all can get to know where I’m coming from and the perspective that will be part of this podcast. I think it's important to know about the context of people who we listen to, read, etc, and hope you'l...

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